Oil Spill Preparedness Exercises in the Black Sea

In accordance with the articles of the Convention on the Protection
of the Black Sea Against pollution and its
Protocols the Contracting
Parties have agreed to cooperate in protecting the marine environment of the Black Sea from potential damages arising from from emergency situations as well as combating pollution of the sea by oil and other harmful substances.
The activities undertaken are described in detail
here.

Some of the activities of the Black Sea Commission

The Joint GFCM-BSC Workshop on IUU fishing was a first activity in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) between the Black Sea Commission and the GFCM signed on 14th May, 2012 in Marrakech, Morocco, during the 36th Session of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM).

The extent and the nature of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing were carefully assessed by the workshop participants.

A number of presentations were delivered which allowed participants to express their views and feed relevant information to the workshop. The consequences associated to IUU fishing were also examined together with measures available at international and regional level against it.

The National representatives presented the relevant IUU information, including data, legislation and current practices, based on the questionnaire circulated ahead of the workshop; the BSC PS representative made an overview of the regional fishing fleet.

The main outcome of the workshop was development of a
roadmap identifying actions, objectives, means and actors of relevance for the Black Sea in order to fight IUU fishing.

Cooperation with BSEC

The 26th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC)
was held in Belgrade on 11 June 2012. During the meeting, H.E. Ambassador Victor Tvircun from Moldova was elected as the new Secretary General
of the BSEC Permanent International Secretariat. H.E. Ambassador Tvircun, who previously served as Minister of Education and Youth
as well as Ambassador of Moldova in Ankara, assumed his duties as of 1 July 2012.

On the 19th of July, 2012 Prof. Halil Ibrahim Sur, the Executive Director of the Black Sea Commission’s Permanent Secretariat,
paid a visit to the premises of the Headquarters of BSEC PERMIS in order to have an introductory meeting with H.E. Ambassador Victor Tvircun,
the newly elected BSEC Executive Secretary. The Parties discussed the opportunities for future cooperation between the two organizations.

Regional Workshop on Implementation of International Dumping Agreements in the Black Sea Region

Round the Black Sea

Following the historical tour of the Black Sea countries described in Jules Verne's famous book Kéraban le Têtu(Kéraban the Inflexible) the sailing boat Gyatso, manned by David Barker and Lisa Borre is repeating this historical tour to spread the word of the uniqueness of the Black Sea as well as our efforts to protect its environment. Follow the blog of Gyatso's round the Black Sea tour here

Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on the Protection
of the Black Sea Against Pollution, 16 - 17 April 2009, Sofia, Bulgaria.

MEDCOAST 15, 06-10 Oct 2015, Varna, Bulgaria

MEDCOAST 15,06-10Oct
2015,Golden Sands,Varna,Bulgaria

The twelfth event of the MEDCOAST's
biennial international conference series on the Mediterranean Coastal
Environment (MEDCOAST 15) will take place at the premises of the
ultra-all-inclusive Grifid Bolero Hotel at Golden Sands, Varna, Bulgaria
during 06-10 October 2015. The web page of the conference is at the
address (www.conference.medcoast.net).
The deadline for online abstract submission will expire on 15
May 2015.

Since the first
conference in 1993, the past eleven events of the MEDCOAST conference
series have brought together researchers, planners, designers, managers,
policy makers, national and local administrators, developers and NGOs
from a wide spectrum of nationalities, who have interest in coastal and
marine science, conservation, policy and management in general and in
the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas in particular.

All papers presented (oral or poster) in
the MEDCOAST conferences are peer-reviewed and printed in the
proceedings which are covered by the major conference proceedings
indexing systems such as the ISI Thomson, Scopus and Compendex. Authors
of the selected papers from the proceedings are invited for thematic
special issues of the leading coastal and marine journals.

All interested
people are invited to upload on-line their abstract(s) by 15 May,
following the instructions provided at the conference web page and to be
with us at Golden Sands, Varna in October for a rewarding and enjoyable
international gathering.

We have lost Prof. Dr. Galina Shtereva, Scientific Secretary of the Institute of Oceanology - Varna, Bulgaria

28th April 2015

We inform with a great sadness that on the 28th April, a prominent scientist, Prof Dr. Galina Shtereva, Scientific Secretary of the Institute of Oceanology of Bulgaria - BAS, Head of the Marine Chemistry Department and a renowned expert on chemistry of marine waters, passed away. Her dedication to the Black Sea and her scientific achievements cannot be underestimated. On behalf of the Black Sea Commission and its Permanent Secretariat, we express deepest and sincerest condolescences to her family and friends. Let her rest in peace.

BENA-CERN Meeting in Geneva

BENA-CERN Meeting in Geneva

During 5-7 March the President and the Scientific Secretary of ISSE/BENA
invited to CERN (European Center of Nuclear Research) to discuss possibility
of collaboration between BENAand CERN on the following proposing by BENA
topics:

B.EN.A Members to have the possibility to collaborate with various
working groupsof CERN and particular with the Environmental Group of
CERN. The actual way howthis will be realized is a matter that we define
in due time.

WORKSHOPS: CERN and B.EN.A will co-organize in different domains,
in variouscities – countries workshops aiming each time to different
participants (publicservants, private companies, international bodies,
etc). B.EN.A will take theresponsibility of the organization of the
workshops and CERN will cover thenecessary expenses.

CONFERENCES: CERN – B.EN.A will organize an annual Conference
every 2 years(starting from 2016 in CERN Geneva) relating to ENVIRONMENT
AND MEDICINE(PUBLIC HEALTH). This Conference could be in different
country after 2016.

The meeting with the Environmental Group (Unit) of CERN after long
discussions and mutualunderstanding with the presence of the Deputy Head of
International Relations of CERNdecided to proceed with the signature of MoU
between BENA and CERN focusing to theabove 4 topics which BENA proposed from
the beginning and CERN accepted with pleasure.

Meeting with Env.Group of CERN and the Dept.Head ofInternational
Relations with BENA representatives

Meeting with the General Director Dr.R.D.Heuer, Dept.Head of
Int.Relations Prof.E.Tsesmelis and President and Scientific
Secretariat of BENA, Prof.F.Vosniakos and Dr.M.Golumbeanu

Bena conferences in 2015

BENA conferences announcement

5th BENA International Conference on Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development, University “1 December 1918”, Alba Iulia, Romania, 28-30 May 2015.

BENA International Conference “Sea and Coastal Development in the frame of Sustainability- MACODESU2015” , Kara Deniz University, Trabzon, Turkey,
18-20 September 2015.

BENA International Conference “Marine and Fresh Water Ecology and Protection”, Tuscia University of Viterbo, Italy, 2-4 October 2015.

30th Regular Meeting of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution

The 30th Regular Meeting of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution was held on 19–20 November, 2014 in the premises of its Permanent Secretariat in Istanbul, Turkey.

Celebrating the Black Sea Day 2014

Celebrating the Black Sea Day 2014

The Black Sea
community celebrated the Black Sea Day 2014!

It continues to be a good tradition every year, since the
first Strategic Action Plan for the Rehabilitation and Protection of the Black
Sea was signed by all riparian countries of the Black Sea on the
31st of October back in 1996
in Istanbul. Since then this important event is commemorated every year in
different coastal cities around the Black Sea.

A good tradition to present the
Black Sea Medal Awardsfor the outstanding individual efforts to protect the marine environment of the
Black Sea was established and it is being presented every year to one individual
from each riparian country around the Black Sea.

y means of organizing such events we try to attract the
attention of scientists, politicians, decision-makers and just a wider public to
the day-by-day activities related to the protection of the Black Sea. This year
we hold these celebrations under support of our partners – projects aimed at
supporting the Black Sea regional cooperation -
EMBLAS Project: Improving
Environmental Monitoring in the Black Sea;
PERSEUS Project:
Policy-oriented marine
Environmental
Research for the Southern
European
Seas; IRIS-SES Project:
Integrated Regional Monitoring Implementation Strategy in the South European
Seas and MISIS Project: MSFD Guiding
improvements in the Black Sea Integrated Monitoring System. They presented their
achievements to the attention of the Black Sea Commission and our guests from
various organizations from the Black Sea coast and beyond.

The objectives of the 4th Biannual Black Sea Scientific Conference were
the following:

Provide the opportunity to the scientific community to meet and to discuss their achievements in order to improve scientific basis for the implementation of the Black Sea Strategic Action Plan;

Update the knowledge on the Black Sea ecosystems identifying the gaps in the scientific data/information; revise the environment priorities and way forward to achieve good environmental status of the Black Sea;

Discuss and assess the climate forcing mechanisms of physical, biological and biogeochemical processes at various time-spatial scales;

Review the decision-support tools available in the Black Sea region and give recommendations for further developments and their use in the implementation of the BS SAP;

Continue the integration of science in decision-making in the field of marine environment protection.

The main topics of the 4th Bi-annual Black Sea Scientific Conference :

The Conference was jointly organized by the Black Sea Commission, Ministry of Environment and Climate Changes of Romania and
National Institute for Marine Research and Development "Grigore Antipa" Constanta.
Back-to-back with this important scientific event for the Black Sea region, other
two activities were organized: Celebration of International Black Sea Day and the 6th edition of the NIMRD International Symposium
"Protection and Sustainable Management of the Black Sea Ecosystem - 3rd Millennium Imperative".

Participants in the events:

Approximately 150 scientists and stakeholders

52 oral presentations

90 posters

The Conclusions and Recommendations of the Conference

Continue the harmonization process in the Black Sea region in term
of monitoring and assessment of marine environment in order to define
GES for the Black Sea and ensure the data availability;

Strengthen the collaboration between science, industry, other
stakeholders and decision-makers for the same purpose;

Continue and strengthen the collaboration within the
scientific community towards common goal of protecting the marine
environment;

Need for further application of holistic ecosystem-based approach
and international joint actions for better management of the marine
environment.

4th BSC-HELCOM Workshop on Eutrophication and Pollution and Pre-meeting

The 4th BSC-HELCOM Workshop on eutrophication and pollution and pre-meeting was held on 26-28th November, 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey. This expert workshop was titled „Towards reaching a good status of the Baltic and Black Seas: lessons learnt in Baltic2Black and ways forward”. The workshop was preceded by a short meeting on 26 November 2013 to plan the future cooperation between Baltic Sea and Black Sea networks.

The overall aim of the workshop is to continue exchange of knowledge and learning from the long experience gained in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea on the semi-enclosed brackish-water ecosystems.

A secondary aim of the workshop is to summarize the results of the activities implemented during the three years of the EU funded Baltic2Black Project concerning the best practices in assessing eutrophication, developing common indicators and nutrient reduction scheme.

The Commissions are confident that it is extremely important to maintain the dialogue created between the experts from both regions, encouraging them to continue the collaboration beyond the life time of this project.

Dablas-Black Sea Commission regional meeting on Developing Environmental Infrastructure Projects in the Water and Waste Water Sector in the Black Sea Region in the context of River Basin Management, , Istanbul, Turkey

News:

2 Mar 2015

The International Conference on Water and Health will be held in the Antalya Congress Center (Turkey) 26 - 30 October 2015. The Conference is organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Karadeniz Technical University and Cukurova University. /www.suvesaglik.org/www.waterandhealthcongress.org